Ben Raderstorf

It's no longer a question of if authoritarianism comes to America; now it's just a question of how bad it gets, and how long it lasts.

It's here. We can get rid of it if we fight together.

Someone’s been reading for book club

I agree that Axios et al often miss the forest for the clicks, but here they use language of "purging dissenters, rewriting history, criminalizing opposition" and say Trump "threatened to eviscerate the integrity of US govt data."

That is the kind of descriptive language we need more of from media

This is the equivalent of saying you won’t permit bicycles unless they have more horsepower than cars and trucks

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

To the victor goes the spoils system? Schedule G and the consequences of Trump’s “Fire and Fill” strategy

NEW in our Dear Civil Servant series, we cover “Schedule G” and how it threatens to take our merit-based civil service back to a spoils system.

*Taps sign*
www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-big-un...

I'm currently in Tokyo for an international conference, and by jingo did I pick a week to be away. The time zones here have me sleeping during the American day, and I just woke up from a jetlag-afflicted sleep to a *very* different U.S. economy.

It feels like something just cracked.

I'm just a lowly expert on authoritarian countries that have experienced massive, self-imposed economic collapses, but...

Now might be a good time to sell any US-based stocks.

Social media post from Donald J. Trump on August 1, 2025, at 2:09 PM, addressing the firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner of Labor Statistics. Trump accuses her, a Biden appointee, of falsifying jobs data to benefit Kamala Harris before the 2024 election. He claims the Bureau of Labor Statistics overstated job growth figures by hundreds of thousands in multiple months leading up to the election. Trump calls for accurate data and says McEntarfer will be replaced by someone more competent. He also criticizes Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, nicknaming him “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell,” and implies the Fed manipulated interest rates for political gain. The post ends with a thank you to followers and shows engagement metrics: 2.61k ReTruths and 8.77k Likes.

It's no exaggeration to say this is how you become a failed state like Venezuela. You fire competent people and replace them with loyal sycophants, even in roles where the truth is vital.

This will end in disaster when key economic data is manipulated on behalf of an authoritarian leader.

Terrible, but sadly, expected — and the latest remark in an Orwellian laundry list that suggests the president views gov economic data as a source of propaganda to make him look good, not to guide policy for the best interest of all Americans. Facts don’t matter, only Trump does.

To the victor goes the spoils system? Schedule G and the consequences of Trump’s “Fire and Fill” strategy

5. Erica Newland, Walt Shaub, Jules Torti, and Ellinor Heywood: "Schedule G and the consequences of Trump’s “Fire and Fill” strategy"
www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/to-the-vic...

4. Daniel Richman: "Trump is discovering the downside of a Justice Department with no credibility."
bsky.app/profile/nyto...

Emil Bove Is a Sign of the Times He has demonstrated that total sycophancy to the president can be a fantastic career move.

3. @qjurecic.bsky.social: "Emil Bove is a sign of the times." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Trump keeps pressuring the Fed to cut rates. Here's why its independence matters Trump has threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, challenging the Fed's independence. Experts say he's not the first president to target the central bank, but he's the most public and aggressive.

w. Scott Neuman: "Trump keeps pressuring the Fed to cut rates. Here's why its independence matters."
npr.org/2025/07/30/n...

Top Generals Nominated for New Positions Must Now Meet With Trump

But seriously, this is not happening in isolation. Other major examples:

1. @gregjaffe.bsky.social and Maggie Haberman: "Top Generals Nominated for New Positions Must Now Meet With Trump"
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

Really good thread from @brendannyhan.bsky.social collecting some of the reactions: bsky.app/profile/bren...

The big undercurrent of the Trump era What to do about the politicization of *everything*

I spent all week on this piece and then, moments before I hit send, Trump did the biggest politicization imaginable — attempting to fire the BLS Commissioner for not cooking the jobs numbers.

This is, without exaggeration, the biggest story right now: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-big-un...

‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the mega prison where the U.S. deported migrants Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the notorious prison.

“Welcome to hell”

We spoke to 16 Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. This is the most complete view yet of the conditions they faced — which, some experts said, may violate conventions against torture.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The fact that we're so unwilling to give public servants raises creates a bizarre perverse incentive: when they do a *good* job and the economy grows, their compensation (relative to opportunity cost) decreases — and so the incentive to leave, or be corrupt, increases.

Pay civil servants more!

To the victor goes the spoils system? Schedule G and the consequences of Trump’s “Fire and Fill” strategy

If you're not subscribed, Erica Newland, Jules Torti, Walt Shaub, and Ellinor Heywood's "Dear Civil Servant" has become one of my go-too reads in the Trump era. @protectdemocracy.org

Tireless cataloguing of what's happening to our nonpartisan civil service: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/to-the-vic...

Two of the most dangerous words in politics: "some say."

By vaguely pointing to unnamed others, they attempt to normalize the extremely un-normal and lay the groundwork for the unthinkable to become reality. Outrageous.

These scholars are among the top thinkers about democracy and autocracy in the world.

Also my understanding is diverting that water would cut off the current water supplies for Contra Costa County (pop. 1.1 million) and a large chunk of Solano County (450k)

I *love* this line about pushing back against Trumpism:

"Getting out of this is going to require a symphony of defiance."

That's @leahgreenberg.bsky.social quoted by @michellegoldberg.bsky.social in the NYT (gift link):

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...

Cadillac Desert is my top recommended book for anyone in California because it quickly brings two profound realizations:
1. Everything around you is an amazing and rickety engineering marvel
2. All of the seemingly unfixable problems with it evaporate if we simply stop massively subsidizing ag water

I don’t think people are prepared for where this growing movement toward maximum partisan gerrymandering is headed

Important new lawsuit! Today 12 members of Congress filed a lawsuit seeking to force ICE to follow the law and allow them to enter detention centers for the purposes of conducting oversight.

Having spent all day deep in the weeds on the new TX GOP map, I concur—it's in no way a dummymander. The "bluest" GOP-held district, #TX23, would still have gone for Trump by 15 points.

To put that in context, the reddest Dem-held seat, #ME02, went for Trump by 9 last year.

Rather than being protectors of the status quo (as they run in 2024), democrats should be the party of "our institutions are broken and here's a set of reforms we propose: multi-member districts/PR, congress expansion, term limits for judges...."